Orin Kerr joined the Berkeley Law faculty in 2019 after serving as the Frances R. and John J. Duggan Distinguished Professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. From 2001 to 2017, he was a professor at the George Washington University Law School. Kerr has previously been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. An accomplished teacher, Kerr received the outstanding teaching award from the George Washington Law School Class of 2009.

Kerr specializes in criminal procedure and computer crime law, and he has also taught courses in criminal law, evidence, and professional responsibility. He has written more than 60 law review articles, over 40 of which have been cited in judicial opinions (including seven articles that have been cited in U.S. Supreme Court opinions). His scholarship also has been cited by more than 3,000 academic articles. In addition to writing law review articles, Kerr has authored popular casebooks, co-authored the leading criminal procedure treatise, and published countless blog posts at popular blogs such as the Volokh Conspiracy and Lawfare.

Kerr has briefed and argued cases in the United States Supreme Court and three federal circuits. He has testified six times before Congressional committees. In 2013, Chief Justice Roberts appointed Kerr to serve on the Advisory Committee for the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. In 2015, the Chief Justice again appointed him to serve on the Judicial Conference’s committee to review the Criminal Justice Act.

Before attending law school, Kerr earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in mechanical engineering. Following law school, he was a law clerk for Judge Leonard I. Garth of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court. Before joining academia, he was a trial attorney in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section at the U.S. Department of Justice and a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.